The Democratic Party strategy for winning the presidency and Congress in 2020 should follow the same formula that won them 40 additional House seats in the 2018 election – make health care the number 1 issue, support broad based likeable candidates, and target independents and moderate Republicans in purple and red states and districts.

Donald Trump, a rich kid who received five deferments from the Vietnam draft, somehow decided that now was a good time to resurrect his feud with the deceased war hero. Trump has been in a public spat with Senator McCain's daughter in recent days, which culminated in an unhinged rant against McCain's family for not thanking him for giving them the funeral that Senator McCain wanted.

House Democrats followed through on one of their biggest campaign promises in 2018 and passed a sweeping election reform bill that takes a crack at campaign finance, ethics, and voting rights reforms in one fell swoop. The bill would transform voting as we know it, notably making election day a national holiday and dramatically expanding early voting nationwide.

The Republican Party has devolved into the Party of Trump, where Trumpism is embodied by a populist and unlikely ragtag alliance of rabid racist nativists, anti-intellectualists, overt flag waving patriots, religious zealots, rich oligarchs and corporatists finding common ground to unabashedly defend everything their feared and heralded leader says and does, facts be damned.

Donald Trump's former "fixer" and personal lawyer Michael Cohen unloaded on his onetime hero in a 30-minute opening statement where he, among a myriad of other things, called the President of the United States a "racist" and a "conman" who only cares about himself.

On this day in 1958, the John Birch Society was founded in Indianapolis by Robert H.W. Welch, Jr. Another one of the founding members was a chemical engineer named Fred C. Koch, who started a company in 1940 named the Wood River Oil and Refining Company, which later became Koch industries.

It's a well known fact that Vladimir Putin has long held a grudge against America in general, and Hillary Clinton in particular.This morning's New York Tines contained a LENGTHY article (a touch over 10,000 words) about the extent of Russian meddling in our 2016 presidential election. It's worthwhile to set aside some time, and read as much of it as you can.

A prominent scientist has issued a warning for governments to evacuate the west coasts of North and South America because of the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/11/04/david-suzuki-fukushima-warning_n_4213061.htmlObviously governments are not going to do this. Other not-so-well known scientists have denounced this claim.